Elaia Shaillan
Category:NPCCategory:Netherbane right|thumb|500px|Elaia Shaillan. Shai'i of the Shadowed Sun. Former demon hunter under Eraelan Netherbane. =Description= Race Kaldorei Physical Appearance Slender and lithe, Elaia is the epitome of what one thinks of when they think "kaldorei huntress." She spent most of her life training in the woods of Ashenvale, and moves with a feline grace that is almost necessary for survival amongst the beasts. Her hair and her skin are the color of moonlight, and it is spoken between those she has faced during training that she is but a shimmering blur amongst the trees during her hunts. Elaia does not have a true demonform, as her soul and body were separated long ago. The Burning Legion corrupted her soul but left her body largely intact, as such the only real difference between the younger and older Elaia is the coloring of her skin and hair. Like many who practice the arts of hunting demons, both of these have grown darker over time. She also wears the blindfold common to her old caste. In addition, she travels at times with a trio of Nathrezim who act to help maintain her presence in the material world, maintaining the tenuous link between her body and soul. Upon this discovery, however, Xythael tracked down and eliminated one of these. Overview Elaia Shaillan was one of Eraelan Netherbane's first students. She was a skilled huntress and had begun her life with the desire to become a sentinel of her people. Early on, however, she met Eraelan himself, and he recruited her into his new school of teachings. Elaia fell in love with a hunter there named Thelnin. Thelnin wasn't exactly the strongest of the group, and was commonly outpaced not only by Elaia, but also by another new student named Tharion. Eraelan, not being the most forgiving of mentors, began to push Thelnin harder, tossing him into situation that he knew were beyond the young hunter's abilities. It was during Thelnin's binding ritual that things went wrong. Thelnin was put through the ritual too early for his skill, and was killed in the process. Elaia was crushed. But she did not grieve as many would assume. Instead she doubled her efforts, pushing herself beyond her own limits. Her personality changed, becoming much colder and to the point, no longer the warm and inviting young kaldorei she once was. There was even a point where she sought her own sort of twisted comfort with Tharion, the only other hunter in the camp she found worthy aside from Eraelan (and she was never one to think of Eraelan in such a way). It was only one night, but it was immediately before her binding ritual, and it was a night that would haunt Tharion for longer than he would at first know. When it was time for her binding, she fought and defeated one of the more powerful demonic entities in the area. When she was bound, however, she went completely mad, one of the first of Eraelan's students to fall so heavily to the madness of his extremely dangerous rituals. Tharion, recently bound and with no trace of the madness that Elaia displayed, was assigned to "take care of the issue." He did so. It was not an easy fight, but Tharion was successful in defeating, and killing, Elaia Shaillan. Out of respect for who she once was, Tharion brought her broken body back to the camp and left it in Eraelan's care. Years later, it was revealed that Eraelan did not bury Elaia as he should have. In fact, he had made a darker pact with the Burning Legion, and had promised them the body and soul of his best pupil. The only caveat was that he did not promise them both intact. The Legion took her anyway and turned her into one of them. Her soul went though the most change, already tainted by both the trauma of losing her beloved and by the ritualistic binding that Eraelan required. The Legion already had enough 'hooks' in her, so they merely used what they had to twist her into what they needed. The Shai'i is not a demonic race, but is instead a title of a specific type soldier. The Shai'i are stalkers, hunters that are demons, sent by the Legion to murder those who stand in their way. It is known amongst some Burning Legion circles that the Shadowed Sun makes the most use of the Shai'i beings in their work. Elaia was to become a Shai'i. A Stalker. The Legion corrupted her soul and rebound it to her body. The result of THAT trauma made her go even more mad, making her an extremely dangerous opponent. She was a demon hunter now directly in service to the Burning Legion. Her skills and abilities were finely honed across the years, and the extra strength and powers given her by the Burning Legion itself made her a creature unlike any seen from the Twisting Nether for a long time. When Daeloth failed in his bid to kill Tharion and Xythael, Elaia was awakened and dispatched to kill all three of them. Her hunts were brutal and came from many angles, breaking down the will of her victims through half truths and maddening words. It was soon discovered that since Elaia's soul and body had been severed so long ago, she needed a set of dreadlord warlocks (in human form) to keep her presence in the material realm. It was Xythael who discovered the truth of this and hunted down one of the three, removing him from the equation and severely weakening The Shai'i's place in the world. In the end, however, Elaia's old weakness for Tharion was her final undoing. She approached him in the halls of the Netherbane with the intent to kill him first, instead of going after the more weakened Daeloth. The ensuing fight nearly destroyed the Netherbane guild hall, and the resulting backlash of Tharion's deathblow to Elaia shattered the soul within Felborne and sent Tharion reeling. Elaia was dead. The only remains were her tattered uniform, the one worn by all members of Eraelan's old school of demon hunting, and her cracked felblade.